It's been a few weeks since I last blogged about my efforts to resolve a customer service issue with Whirlpool, so I thought I'd provide a short update.
Background
We have a subscription where Whirlpool automatically sends out a new water filter for our refrigerator every six months and bills the credit card they have on file. Our credit card recently expired, but so far we've been unable to give Whirlpool the updated information. (You can follow previous posts here.)
Update
A customer service representative called me and left a voice message offering to help. We played phone tag for a few days until he stopped calling. One thing I noticed is he said he returned calls in the order they were received and could take up to one business day to respond. The last voice message I left him contained dates and times when I would be available since I wasn't going to be around the following day. This probably threw off his system of returning calls at his convenience, which I imagine is why he didn't call again.
My wife and I have now contacted Whirlpool a total of 13 times in an affort to update our credit card information. It's beyond ridiculous that they can't fix this, but I can guess at the real culprit. If you were to pry open the Whirlpool's customer service and parts fulfillment operation you'd find a hodge-podge of broken systems. Silos between teams, computer systems that don't talk to each other, and pointless policies. It's just a guess, but it's hard to believe my experience is all that unique.
I wish I were David Allen
David Allen is the author of one of my favorite books on personal productivity, Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity.
He also has a bit more social media clout than I do. Check out this Tweet from earlier this week:
Just let 1.2mil people know that I'm not happy w/Adobe customer service. Curious to see what difference that makes. Social media.
— David Allen (@gtdguy) November 29, 2012
Less than 24 hours later he sent out this Tweet:
Good on Adobe. They followed up w/me nicely
— David Allen (@gtdguy) November 29, 2012
If you are on Twitter, check out the full conversation that includes replies from some of David Allen's followers. Some of them are spot on. You can also see a few Tweets from Adobe in the mix.